The Abandoned Final Draft

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have learnt a lot about the making of a film along with the planning research filming and distributing it through out the process we have continuously edited and changed parts to improve it and make it look like a real film. Comparing our preliminary task with our finished film you can see a lot of improvements have been made.

The preliminary task we done had many issues with it, it looked very unrealistic due to the shot types and camera angles we used such as the handing over the skittles. Also the continuity editing was wrong because the thank you is repeated twice however we cut the sound of for the second one this helped us practice for our actual film. At 0.12 there is a jump cut from her handing the skittles then it cuts to a shot from her point of view.
However in our finished film there is continuity editing which shows the narrative and there is a vary of more shots and camera angles.

Improvements that have been made:

• We used many different media documents to prepare us for our film that traditional film makers would use such as story boards which gave us the opportunity to know what shot to use before the actual day of filming. using story boards, scripts and other planning allowed us to have plenty of time to film and edit it therefore giving us a better overall result compared to the preliminary task which we used none of this.
• We were also able to use a wider range of shots such as close-ups, long shots, medium shots, extreme long shots
• Before filming we had researched camera angles and shots to create effects for our film, a key part in our film that we used was the hand held camera this was used to walk behind amie but the camera movement was very shaky to make the audience feel as if amie was being followed.
• we also learnt from the preliminary task the art of moving the camera at the right time we had to film amna walking through the door a couple of times before we got it correct because she would walk too fast and the camera would quickly pan from left to right making the image unclear this allowed us to know when to pan the camera to film amies action shots.
• after the preliminary task we had a better knowledge on how to used final cut express on the imac computers and this allowed us to then advance to using professional effects to make our final film look very realistic

This is a rough cut of our opening sequence however we have gone back to edit it more to make it look like a real life film 

screen shots of our finished film

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

in the short film we made we left our target audience intrigued because the flashing images of the house, child and woman left them confused thinking what is the story behind the 3 repeated images. This was done by cutting the footage to lead it up to a continuous narrative it also create a lot of enigma.

The establishing shot is a long shot of amie walking through a deserted field in her uniform this straight away makes the audience think what is a young attractive girl walking through a field on her own at dusk. We also see in this shot she is the protagonist in the film

The title credits have been cut into the film to give it a creepy effect because the writing is in a type writer font so it would make the audience feel as if it is a police case and that someone has been investigating and watching the case closely.

we also attracted our audience by adding in a religion many people turn to religion for help and it is a typical convention in a supernatural horror because the priest helps the person who is possessed, so showing these christianity symbols attract the audience

We also stuck to the narrative by adding in news reporters this was to build enigma because when it is based on a true story it captures the audiences attention straight away. in the shot below we see how it is fading from one reporter to another this makes it feel as if it is a big new report over the country.

This shot is of amie exploring the house in every supernatural horror we see this because they are trying to find out what happend and why the evil soul is trapped there

we also see similar shots to the ones above these supernatural horrors so the audience can compare them to the ones they have seen before relating it to the supernatural genre:

Insidious

Amityville horror

Paranormal Activity

American haunting

4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our media product would be ranging from 15-30's however it would still relate to the older generation as well because we use a young girl who is 15 but also there is an older woman involved. The male gender would be more drawn to the film because it is manly attractive women with long hair to show them are feminine that are used however the woman and child are both independent brave females so they would relate to other females because women like to look up to good role models, we also see this in the screen shot of her carrying books to show she is educated. Our media product is based on ordinary people in a semi detached house so it would be aiming at the middle to lower class citizens. To aim our short film at a higher class we would have based it in an affluent area where there is proof of wealth through the houses and cars, however we thought that it would relate to more people if we used the average house.

 




From our audience research we found that supernatural horrors relate to more teenagers than slashers this was because supernatural horrors are about the unknown which ment it was the most popular genre. Based on this we used one of the most successful to date supernatural horrors which was paranormal activity this is a modern film which promoted a lot of technology. The film was open to all target audiences which allowed us to use the same techniques to appeal to everyone.

3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The Production Company would invest money towards the making of the film or would create links with larger companies to make the budget higher.
The research I done on production companies was to world wide film distributors this is because our film relates to a very wide target audience due to it being a supernatural horror. The actually film 'The Abandoned' was produced with us; KAS Media Productions however to distribute our film we would of linked up with Paramount Pictures this is a internationally established distribution company for the horror genre with them having a lot of success with films such as Paranormal Activity. This is because we need a distribution company that cater for horror because Warner brothers is also a well known company however they specialise in gangster films such as ‘goodfells’ which brought them great success. Also working with a large distribution company will help our constantly evolving production company KAS, paramount pictures also has many advantages to it with it being able to release our short film into many cinemas in england and over seas such as america. it would also be able to then distribute it on to a dvd and tv on demand, however our short film does not involve any professional actors or actresses so if we wanted it to be released they would have to be repalced. Although the low budget wouldn't be a problem because this adds to the effect of the film like in paranormal activity there budget was only $15,000.

We would also work with some small institutions such as:
uk film council - attack the block
Film 4 - St Trinian's

1.In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Porducts?

 Props: throughout our film we have refruenses to christianity this is because it is a typical convention as seen in the image above on the right this is from amitivile horror. a religion is always supposed to help you and in this genre it helps the possed person.

Location: the image on the right is from Blair Witch both locations are set in derelict houses, the location for our film adds to the effect of the film hugely because it makes it feel very creepy because no one else is around.

amies costume: this establishes her age that she is young, we have used the typical uniform that everyone can relate with a school the blazer and shirt and tie we also see this in Harry potter which is also about evil spirits.

Title Credits: The professional titles are from the film zodiac both ours and zodiacs titles are in this font to give them a type writer effect this is because it makes the audience feel as if it is a case and people are watching over it, it also makes it feel more personal

Lighting:

in our shot and the shot from Amityville horror the camera is in shallow focus to make the protagonist stand out and her surroundings are darker this is because it makes the scene more sinister because you can't see clearly in the dark this also creates enigma because most people don’t feel safe in the dark.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents a particular social group because it sticks to the typical conventions of a supernatural horror which is children; we used a 15 year old girl dressed in uniform this is because they are vulnerable. The actor is wearing a blazer and skirt which is typical school wear so our target audience would know straight away she is young. Also her uniform was customised with her skirt being short and her hair down and make-up on this is a stereotypical way to show she is in the social group of being miss popular in school and the girls like this always get killed first.  We also see in both clips that there girls are skinny this is due to the role models in fashion magazines influencing young adults. However we have dressed amie in a presentable way with glasses to show she can be both brains and beauty, in contrast in the clip from the ring i think they have dramatised the girls uniform overly to make more of a point to the audience that she is a typical target to the antagonist.

Our media product is also representing the social group of old women, this is because it sticks with the typical conventions of a supernatural horror because the women are always old and knowledgeable and from experiences in the past know and have witnessed a lot of ghosts and due to this they get a gift to help others in the same situation they was once in. This was made obvious in the film with them having white/grey hair and deep wrinkles, there clothing was also dark which is like there secrets however they are always with a young person to pass down there knowledge to the future generation. 

Here is an image of a scene from isidious another well known supernatural horror of the old woman describing to a younger generation what she can see, we have also used this idea in our film  

Risk Assessment

In order to create our supernatural horror in full effect we set our film in a derelict house this was to create the feeling of fear. However there were many hazards that we had to check out before filming, such as there was derby on the floor this was a hazard because our actor or anyone else involved in the making of the film could have fallen over and hurt themselves. The derby was in fact part of the mise en scene for our film making it more effective. We also walked around all the areas that we would use for filming to see it the house was stable we checked that there was no broken glass on the floor and we were close to a hospital just in case an incident did occur we would know how to handle it.

Equipment List

Recording Equipment

The camera we used to film our production was called a Dv Cam this was a light weight camera that was easy to use in our location, It was also recommended by our college tutors.

Tripod

The tripod was a useful piece of equipment that we used because it allowed the camera shots to be stable so that the image was clear and not shaking.

Paglight

The Paglight was used when the location we was in was too dark to see through the camera by using natural light, the light also added to the effect of the production because it was highlighted certain parts of the room that we wanted for the mise en scene.

Apple imac

The imac was used to edit and put together the shots that we had filmed, it was also used to create effects, change the lightining and add writing.

Props:
bible,doll,school uniform,make-up,cross,Glasses,Hand Bag

Preliminary Task

in the preliminary task i kept the role as director to practice and amna did the cinematography from this task i learnt about continuity editing, the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot.

Audience Research

Title Credits

Title credit: with Mariah Raja (the credits will come in and out of the shot by using fog for pathetic fallacy)

Title credit: and Patricia Brown

Title credit: casting by Amanda Phillips

Title credit: costumes designed by Frank Pierre

Title credit: co-producer Richard Branning

Title credit: music by Cathy Berk

Title credit: edited by Sarra Webb

Title credit: production designer Micheal rider

Title credit: director of photography Amna Mahmood

Title credit: executive producers Alana Stephenson, Daniel Walsh

Title credit: produced by Courteney ,Amna and Sarra

Title credit: story by Courteney Randall

Title credit: screenplay by Courteney Randall and Sarra Webb

Title credit: directed by Courteney Randall

Location Recce

The location we need to set our opening sequence in is in a derelict house these are infamous for putting fear into the audience because they don’t know what has happened to the house or who and why it was left abandoned. Also in our research we saw that all the paranormal horrors where based in a house so this would be sticking to the typical conventions.The walls are burnt due to the fire that had been in there which adds to the mise en scene because it looks like scary markings, also on the floor there is debry sorrounding the house and the rubble this adds to the mise en scene because it looks like it has been abandoned for a very long time and dangerous because it would make it hard for the character to escape.   

Research Story Ideas

In our group we decided to do a supernatural horror this is because we thought it would be easier to make the shots more realistic because in a slasher horror the make up would be hard to re create along with the costumes and props. The films I researched are amitivile horror and paranormal activity the key feature they use to scare the target audience is by making the scenes jumpy. There is always death but we see that they are not actually gone because there are signs such as objects move, loud noises, sightings of ghosts/ shadows and electricity problems. The most repetitive feature I saw in all of the supernatural horrors that stood out to me was that most of the action happened at 3.15am at night. The end of all supernatural horrors is that somebody is always possessed by the evil spirit and depending on the narrative they either overcome the evil spirit due to Christianity (priests are always seen) or they end up harming others due to the fact that there body has been taken over and they are unaware of there actions.

12/02/12

As a group we decided to film over the half term to allow us to have more time when we get back to edit, the location will be in a house which follows the typical conventions of a supernatural horror. The storyboard and script will help us to follow the sequence step by step

Shot List

1. (External) Establishing Shot/ Low Angle of abandoned house in the middle of two other houses, Steady Cam/ Tripod Based.


2. (External) Title Credits start saying With Mairah Raja - Bottom left hand corner - Actors Name.


3. (External) Medium Close Up/ Low angle of abandoned house only, Steady Cam.


4. (External) Titles Credits appear and read Patricia Brown - Bottom Right Hand Corner - Actors Name.


5. (External) Close Up of window unlocked on abandoned house, Hand Held Cam, Slight Zoom.


6. (External) Titles Credits come up saying Casting By Amanda Phillips over the close up of the unlocked window.


7. (Internal), Night Time, Medium Close Up of digital clock stating 03:15 am. Handheld Camera.


8. (External), Day Time, Long Shot of young schoolgirl Amy Walking home from school. Steady Camera.


9. (External) Repeat of shot 9 but Title credit Costumes by Frank Pierre appear. Fade in Fade out.


10. (Internal), Medium close up of News Paper article appears and zooms into a close up of the girls face. Handheld Camera.


11. (Internal) Repeat of shot 10 but Title credit Co Producer Richard Branning appears. Fade in Fade out.


12. (External), Establishing shot of Amy Walking onto the street where the abandoned house is. She is at one end of the screen and the house is at the opposite end. Steady Cam.


13. (External), Repeat of shot 12, Title credit reads Music by Kathy Burke. Fade in Fade out.


14. (External), Amy continues to walk down street however in this shot she slowly walks past it with no acknowledgement. Long shot proceeds to a medium shot and back out into a long shot. Eye level view, Steady cam/ Tracking.


15. (External), Continuing from shot 14, Title credit Edited by Sarra Webb appears. Cross Dissolve Fade in Fade out.


16. (Internal), The camera places the audience in the position of someone looking out the abandoned houses window and follows Amy walking off. Hand Held Cam.


17. (External), Back to the long shot of Amy walking off but an old woman’s face faintly shines through the abandoned house window. Steady Cam.


18. (External), Medium Shot of Faded Old woman’s face at the same window, Shallow focus. Steady Cam.


19. (External), A Loud Scream comes from the house and Amy looks Back, Long Shot/ Two Shot, Eye level. Steady Cam.


20. (External), Repeat of shot 19, Title credit Director of cinematography appears saying Amna Mahmood. Cross Dissolve Fade in Fade out.


21. (Internal), Back to digital clock, it reads 16:00, Medium close up. Steady Cam.


22. (Internal), Low Angle shot of looking up the staircase, slight tracking/ Hand held camera.


23. (Internal), repeat of shot 22, slight panning up the staircase, Title credits appear saying Executive Producers Alana Stephenson and Daniel Walsh.


24. (Internal), Medium Close up of mirror slight 2-second pause then a shadow reflects in the mirror. Steady Cam.


25. (Internal), Medium/ Establishing shot, slow zooming in and out of furniture all disorganized. Hand held camera.


26. (Internal) Over shot 25 appears Title credit Produced By Courteney, Amna and Sarra. Fade in Fade out.


27. (Internal) Medium shot from outside bedroom door we see a balanced cross fall on the floor and then the bedroom door slams shut in our/ the Cameras view. Steady Cam.


28. (Internal) On the view of the closed door, Title credit Produced by Courtney, Amna and Sarra appears. Fade in Fade Out.


29. (Internal), Camera pans from right to left and in the corner of the room is the old woman crouched in a ball rocking on the floor, shallow focus, dark lighting. Slow Zoom, Handheld camera.


30. (Internal), Edited CGI writing appears saying SHE WAS POSSESSED. Wipe From Right to Left.

31. Title Credit Edited CGI writes Screenplay by Courteney and Sarra.


32. (Internal), Medium shot Edited CGI Writing appears in 3 sentences/ stages, What happened over the next 50 years has NEVER been explained. Fade in Fade out, Smokey Font.


33. (Internal), Abandoned House appears from shots 1 and 3 and Title credit Reads Directed by Courteney Randall. Dissolve in Cross Fade out.


34. (Internal), CGI writing or News article – She Was Possessed. Medium Close up.


35. (Internal) Extreme close up of Amy’s eyes, Steady Cam.


36. (Internal) Cross fade from shot 35 into 36, Extreme Close up of Amy’s eyes transforming into the old woman ghosts eyes. Steady Cam.


37. (External) Birds eye view shot of abandoned house and street, Quick zoom into house alone, quick panning in circular motion. Zoom into Nothing. Steady Cam, Handheld a variety of shots and angles to create a finale.


38. Fade In Cross Dissolve with shot 37, Large edited CGI Font Title Credit which will introduce the films title which is, THE ABANDONED. Fade out particularly slow.

Script

“Gone”

FADE IN

Present Time:

 INT. Street- Day time
Starts off with a shot off a row of houses

The camera moves in closer to the house to isolate it from the other houses, dirty. overgrown bushes

INT. Night time
The next shot is of the window unlocked

Shot of clocks rewinding back (the clocks are shown to separate the time of now and then)

INT. Day time - Field
AMIE walking home from school

Newspaper article of girl gone missing in sepia to make it look older

AMIE walking past the row of houses

Amie walking past the front door

Old woman’s face in the dirty window

Screaming heard, AMIE looks back at the house

Clocks ticking back again to show the separation of time

INT. Night time – the corridor inside the house
Shot of the staircase inside the house. broken. cobwebs

INT. Bedroom- Night time
A shadow running past a mirror

A shot of the old furniture all disordered

A balanced cross falls on the floor; then a door slams on the camera

INT. Basement- Night time
Image of an old woman on the floor rocking and mumbling, title credit mixed in with the scratches on the walls

Computer generated imagery “what happened over the next 50 years has NEVER been explained”

Newspaper article heading “She Was Possessed”

A shot of AMIEs eyes when she was young

A shot of AMIEs eyes aged and possessed

The film title will fade in and fade out

it will last for approximatly 3 miniutes

Treatment

The summary of our film we are going to make is an old woman’s ghost is trapped in a house haunting people the way she can be released is by taking somebody else’s life to replace hers. The opening sequence of the film will consist of flashes of an old woman screaming for freedom, there will be shots of her looking through the glass and clocks that rewind back to represent the time passing. There will also be shots of a young vunerable girl because ghost can pick up on childrens energy easily girl. Amie is walking home from school past the haunted house. the twist in the story is that at the begining amie hears screaming from the house as she enters her souls is trapped on earth for life however the woman we hear screaming and see looking through the glass is actually the young girl and it is just flash backs of how she got trapped in the house. Our story is similar to The Woman in Black which has just been released.

roles and responsibility's

My role is the director i develop the film idea and decide how the film should look. I have to turn the script into a sequence of shots, I also work with the cinematograph (Amna) to decide the camera angles, lens effects and lighting. I hire the crew members and contribute to other stuff such as the editing, writing and the financial side of film making. I play a key part into the making of the film because it is my job to make our idea into a individual sequence.
Sarra is the editor her role is to make the raw camera footage into a finished product by combining shots into a continous sequence (invisible editing), she will add special effects, graphics, sound effects and dialogue to give our target audience a feeling of terror.
The cinematograph is Amna her job is to capture all of the footage and use her knowledge to know how to pick the right camera angle and shot to make the sequence more effective. Amna also has to chose the right lighting.

Story Board 1st draft

6/02/12

Today I thought of an idea for our opening sequence, we could open the film with the ending like in Amityville Horror this would be a good twist to keep the audience intrigued. We could do special effects to at the end of the clocks ticking back and the scene rewinding to show the audience that it was what happened and then the film would take them back to where and how it all started.

update1 1/02/12

Today I sat down with my group and we decided  the sub genre we are going to do is a supernatural horror, there is going to be one location in a bedroom with one actor and a child as the ghost. We are going to film in the day and the night but mostly at night because will scare the audience more. The films we are going to get our ideas from are Paranormal Activity and American Haunting because these have both been very successful ghost films.

conduct research into codes and conventions

The typical storyline for a horror genre is there are always young people  because they are venerable ,who are usually intoxicated and engage in sexual activity most of them always end up getting killed. The antagonist is usually abnormal because it makes humans fear them and there is always a scene where the protagonist and the antagonist meet face to face and they fight with it looking as if the antagonist is going to win, however the protagonist always manages to get away somehow.

The stock characters for this genre are the antagonist which is the murderer and they usually stand out because they have a trademark such as the way they kill

there is also always a survivor who is a virgin that manages to defeat the antagonist by killing them off, there is always a dumb girl and usually a police officer that gets killed.

Most horror films are set in a small city or urban location with a lot of space to make the chase last longer, These films always start off like a normal day but as it goes into night time this is when the murders happen because it has a bigger impact, most people are afraid of the dark.

The iconography used in horror films are all usually similar such as we would see a lot of blood and black old costumes, also they would use props of knifes or guns of their time. These props are associated with this genre along with masks which hide the antagonist’s identity and make the audience scared.

The cinematography used in horror films make a big impact on the tension caused such as there is always an establishing shot to allow the audience to see the location, the most famous camera used to create the most effect in horror films is a track shot this is because it chases the protagonist around which makes the audience feel as if they are being chased as well because it’s on the protagonists side. A dolly shot is also very effective because it looks as if the characters are being watched

The sound in a horror films makes a big part to create the fear factor and if your watched the film with no sound it would not give you the same effect, soundtracks start off slow and get faster and more upbeat  to create suspense. The soundtrack is usually the theme for that film so the audience recognise the film by the music; the eerie music is made up of orchestral instruments.

Nightmare On Elm Street
0:04 with connie britton
0:09 and clancy brown
0:11 casting by lisa fields
0:20 costumes designed by mari-an ceo
0:23 co-producer john rickard
0:26 music by steve jablonsky
0:32 edited glen scantlebury
0:40 production designer patrick lumb
0:44 director of photography jeff cutter
0:50 excutive producer mike drake
0:53 executive producers robert shaye, micheal lynee
0:57 executive producers richard brener, walter hamada, dave neustadter
1:01 based on characters created by wes craven
1:06 produced by micheal bay, andrew form, brad fuller
1:12 story by wesley strick
1:17 screenplay by wesley strick and eric heisserer
1:22 directed by samuel bayer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGcz7TxDQ7c

Opening Sequence

The opening sequence i analysed is the remake of texas chainsaw massacre (2003), the opening scenes allow the audience to establish the genre because it starts off with a  black background,this is followed by a picture of a baby the camera is in shallow focus this makes the image stand out from the background because around it is darkness. Also the image is in sepia this connotates that is it old. The babys face is distorted around the mouth and this was shown becuase it shows the antagonist was brought up differntly to other children becuase he stands out.
They have used flashes which builds tension because the audience don't know what is going on also they way it has been edited together makes the audience feel uneasy. There is a shot of a police record this allows the audience to know the genre and that some sort of crime is involoved and we also find out the name of the antagonist. The image of writing creates a Historical mood of a police report that somebody is following wich also makes it personal.the word ‘Mutilation’ is shown which introduces the chracters personality that he is evil and twisted.
We then seen a time line of the boys life at the age of 9 we seen a him dragging a dead animal this shows that from a young age he is killing and dangerous alos at 12 he is ivloved with tourture weapons and handcuffs. There is some background history of the texas town such as there meat factory is shut down leaving the town desserted. This is followed by the words ‘mental’ this also shows the character personality, it is handwritten to make it personal. The last couple of shots are of him grown up and we can tell this by he's dirty hands and he is burning and scratching the face out of hes childhood pictures. the narrative is shown through the use of props and coustumes.
The soundtrack is non diegetic and it is uses low violins to create a spooky effect. There is also diegetic sound of a man sayin ' Don't worry about it johnny' this is with a close up shot of a boy with a bandage round he's face this was edited in this way because johnnys face is a problem for him so this is why the mans voice is enhanced by making it echo to show it was something said in the past. the sound builds enigma because it makes the audience feel as if something bad is going to happen, also special effects are used when the file is droped enhancing the sound to build tension.